Just a thought, could the 300 series work performance wise with Jet2? They have a year or two left in them and carry 150 pax so maybe an option, although locals might not be so keen with increased noise levels

RWY 20 TODA now 1875M. Unfortunately it does not have the luxury of Jersey's RWY 26 which has no significant obstacles allowing declaration of up to half TORA as a clearway, giving Jersey a whopping TODA 2472 M,

Oh dear...

Quite a considerable difference. But the new TODA of 1875m is larger than Southend's, although TORA at Southampton marginally smaller. Southend saw flights to canary islands....

Isnt Southend Tora 1799,mtrs,SOU 1814mtrs?

I must have the old charts :oh:

Try the latest issue of the UK AIP, AIRAC 12:
https://www.aurora.nats.co.uk/htmlAI...dex-en-GB.html
Part 2 Aerodromes, scroll down to Southampton for the latest declared distances and the new Aerodrome Chart which depicts the extended runway.

Comparing SOU RWY 20 and SEN RWY 23, SOU's declared distances are all greater than SEN, albeit that the LDA is only 1 metre greater.

We've come a long way with noise, still remember the Mon-Fri BUA BAC 1-11 departures to GLA - that was real noise!

Yes, I remember it well! The afternoon departure usually coincided with arriving home from School and Mum always referred to it as the ‘Four O’Clock Earthquake!’

In which case, base a couple of 300 series down from LBA and offer jet2 holidays to a dozen destinations, job done lol!

Correct to some extent but good luck getting new aircraft anytime soon. Slots are at a premium especially for the A321. EZY just put a new order to their board that won’t see its first aircraft until 2029.

Also I don’t think SOU envisage a largish base and nor will any prospective operators. The likes of LGW, STN etc are a pain in many ways and when ever anyone uses them they suck up the fact it’s going to involve a lot of waiting, hassle etc but on balance they can bear it to get the cheap ticket. SOU is more about convenience and being a quick and hassle free experience. As a result people are happy to pay a bit more for that privilege. A smallish but decent low cost carrier base should still deliver this experience provided the right changes are made to facilitate it. So far we have seen with the runway extension and stand realignment. Maybe next is improvements to the security, baggage, northern taxiway etc and eventually the terminal expansion? SOU gives a low cost operator the opportunity to go after a different market and also charge more for tickets. Is it really that hard to see why this might be attractive to them?

I am not familiar with when SEN started to decline but was it not around the time covid hit? If so, of course being an ancillary operation to the main London airports (like SOU would be) it lost its routes whilst operators retrenched to smaller bases at the large airports.

Arrived back on Saturday 14/10 ( with BA Cityflyer from Palma,bang on time 19-40),a few observations : first we parked on the new stands in the cul-de -sac,certainly bigger,
ground crew were excellent ,left the terminal with cases by 20-05!. Im not sure the arrivals international will cope if two 320s were in,as there isnt alot of room in the passport control. Cityflyer were excellent,its a shame that they coudnt establish a full Summer base from the airport,maybe advertising wasnt up to scratch

l was also on that flight last night ,Excellent I think that’s the fastest I have ever been from landing ,waiting for luggage and outside in 25 minutes.

How many other flights were in?

I think we know the answer to that

I'm just picking up on that story as it brings back happy memories from that era. Nostalgia is something that I am hugely interested in.

​​​​As we are fully aware, British United Airways was taken over by Caledonian Airways in 1970 to form British Caledonian Airways.

From 1970, British Caledonian Airways operated the GLA-SOU BAC 1-11 flights. In 1971, BCAL increased GLA-SOU to daily.

BUA introduced the BAC 1-11-200 on GLA-SOU in June 1968, replacing the Viscount 800, which previously operated the route. The route at that time operated daily except for Saturdays.

BCAL made huge cuts to their network in 1974, which included the axing of their GLA-SOU route. The Last BCAL GLA-SOU flight was in late September 1974

Cambrian Airways from 1971 operated a BAC 1-11-400 on their Cardiff-Bristol-Southampton-Paris Le Bourget-Southampton-Bristol-Cardiff routing. The airlines Viscount fleet originally operated this route before the BAC 1-11.

The Cambrian Airways BAC 1-11 used to fly into Southampton twice daily except for Saturdays. On both the outbound and inbound flights from Paris Le Bourget.

The BCAL BAC 1-11 from GLA would usually be on the ground at SOU in between the Cambrian Airways BAC 1-11 from Paris LBG. from 1971 to late September 1974, Southampton witnessed up to three daily BAC 1-11 movements.

CS 3707

CARDIFF 09.30
BRISTOL 09.50
BRISTOL 10.10
SOUTHAMPTON 10.40
SOUTHAMPTON 11.00
PARIS LBG 13.15 +1

CS 3708

PARIS LBG 15.00+1
SOUTHAMPTON 15.20
SOUTHAMPTON 15.40
BRISTOL 16.10
BRISTOL 16.30
CARDIFF 16.50

BR 841

GLASGOW 12.05
SOUTHAMPTON 13.20
SOUTHAMPTON 14.00
GLASGOW 15.10

From 1975 until 1980, there was the very occasional visit of a British Airways BAC 1-11-400 operating on their Jersey to Southampton route.

I can remember the Cambrian Airways and BCAL BAC 1-11s flying over our house when I was a young lad. My friends and I would then often cycle to the airport to witness their departures. On a couple of occasions, both the Cambrian and BCAL BAC 1-11s were on the ground together.

On a side note, it is related to the BAC 1-11. I can vividly remember in the late 1970s seeing two British Airways BAC 1-11s and three British Airways Viscounts on the ground together at SOU due to a strike at LHR. It was a Sunday if I remember correctly. The apron was rather busy on that particular day along with the usual BIA Herald movements.

I wanted to post this CGI that I just came across online. I'm not making any suggestions or getting carried away but it makes for an interesting image.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f161820c79.jpg

It is from here: https://fselite.net/content/review-i...s-southampton/ It's an impressive rendering of the airport that's for sure.

It sure is as are all of the others 👍

You were extremely quick with the response. Good for you 👍

I was half expecting the first response to be from one of several contributors to this forum who regularly posts rumours. I was looking forward to their great fanfare. You've ruined the party now 😉